Hermes Trismegistus (Greek: Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "thrice-great Hermes";
Latin: Mercurius ter Maximus) is the
representation of the syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.[1] In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised
the congruence of their god Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth[2].
Subsequently the two gods were worshipped as one in what had been
the Temple of Thoth in Khemnu, which the Greeks called Hermopolis.

Contents

Origin and
identity

Both Thoth and Hermes were gods of writing and of magic in
their respective cultures. Thus, the Greek god of interpretive
communication was combined with the Egyptian god of wisdom as a
patron of astrology and
alchemy. In addition, both gods were psychopomps; guiding souls to the afterlife.
And there is also a connection with the Egyptian Priest and
Polymath Imhotep.

A Mycenaean Greek
reference found on a Linear
B clay tablet at Pylos[3] to a
deity or semi-deity called TI-RI-SE-RO-E, Trisheros (the
"thrice or triple hero[4]") could
be connected to the later epithet "thrice wise" "Trismegistus",
applied to Hermes/Thoth. On the same Tn 316 tablet as well as other
Linear B tablets, found in
Pylos and Knossos, appears the name of the deity "Hermes" as
E-MA-A, but not in any apparent connection with the "Trisheros".
This interpretation of poorly understood Mycenaean material is
disputed, since Hermes Trismegistus is not referenced in any of the
copious sources before he emerges in Hellenistic Egypt.

The majority of Greeks, and later Romans, did not
accept Hermes Trismegistus in the place of Hermes. The two gods
remained distinct from one another. Cicero noted several
individuals referred to as "Hermes": "the fifth, who is worshipped
by the people of Pheneus [in Arcadia], is said to have killed Argus, and for this reason to have
fled to Egypt, and to have given the Egyptians their laws and
alphabet: he it is whom the Egyptians call Theyt."[5] In the
same place, Cicero mentions a "fourth Mercury
(Hermes) was the son of the Nile, whose name may not be spoken by
the Egyptians." The most likely interpretation of this passage is
as two variants on the same syncretism of Greek Hermes and Egyptian
Thoth (or sometimes other gods); the one viewed from the
Greek-Arcadian perspective (the fifth, who went from Greece to
Egypt), the other viewed from the Egyptian perspective (the fourth,
where Hermes turns out "actually" to have been a "son of the Nile,"
i.e. a native god). Both these very good early references in Cicero
(most ancient Trismegistus material is from early centuries CE)
corroborate the view that Thrice-Great Hermes originated in
Hellenistic Egypt through syncretism with Egyptian gods (the
Hermetica refer most often to Thoth and Amun).[6]

The Hermetic literature added to the Egyptian concerns with
conjuring spirits and animating statues that inform the oldest
texts, Hellenistic writings of Greco-Babylonian astrology and the newly developed
practice of alchemy (Fowden 1993: pp65–68). In a parallel
tradition, Hermetic
philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and offered the adept
a method of personal ascension
from the constraints of physical being, which has led to confusion
of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing
contemporaneously.[7]

As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited
with tens of thousands of writings of high standing, reputed to be
of immense antiquity. Plato's
Timaeus and Critias state that in the
temple of Neith at Sais, there were
secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for
9,000 years. Clement of Alexandria was under
the impression that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by
Hermes, encapsulating all the training of Egyptian priests.
Siegfried Morenz has suggested (Egyptian Religion) "The
reference to Thoth's authorship...is based on ancient tradition;
the figure forty-two probably stems from the number of Egyptian nomes, and thus conveys the notion of
completeness." The Neo-Platonic writers took up Clement's
"forty-two essential texts".

The so-called "Hermetic literature", the Hermetica, is a
category of papyri
containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. In the
dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of
healing) the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in
statues with the help of herbs, gems and odors, is described, such
that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy. In other
papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and
animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so
as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold
leaf.

Thrice
Great

The origin of the description Trismegistus or "thrice
great" is unclear. Copenhaver reports that this name is first found
in the minutes of a meeting of the council of the Ibiscult, held
in 172 BCE near Memphis in Egypt.[8] Fowden
however asserts that the earliest occurrence of the name was in the
Athenagora by Philo of Byblos circa 64–141 CE[9].
Another explanation is that the name is derived from an epithet of
Thoth found at the Temple of Esna,
"Thoth the great, the great, the great."[10] The
date of his sojourn in Egypt in his last incarnation is not now
known, but it has been fixed at the early days of the oldest
dynasties of Egypt, long before the days of Moses. Some authorities regard him as a
contemporary of Abraham, and
some Jewish traditions go so far as to claim that Abraham acquired
a portion of his mystical knowledge from Hermes himself (Kybalion).

Many Christian writers, including Lactantius, Augustine, Giordano Bruno,
Marsilio
Ficino, Campanella and Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wise pagan prophet
who foresaw the coming of Christianity[11]. They
believed in a 'Prisca Theologia', the doctrine that a single, true,
theology exists, which threads through all religions, and which was
given by God to man in antiquity[12][13] and
passed through a series of prophets, which included Zoroaster and Plato. In order to demonstrate the
verity of the 'priscia theologia' Christians appropriated the
Hermetic teachings for their own purposes. By this account Hermes
Trismegistus was either, according to the fathers of the Christian
church, a contemporary of Moses[14] or
the third in a line of men named Hermes, i.e. Enoch, Noah and the
Egyptian priest king who is known to us as Hermes Trismegistus,[15] or
"thrice great" on account of being the greatest priest, philosopher
and king.[16][17]

This last account of how Hermes Trismegistus received the
appellation "Trismegistus," meaning "Thrice Great," is derived from
statements in the The Emerald Tablet of Hermes
Trismegistus, that he knows the three parts of the wisdom
of the whole universe.[18] The
three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy. The pymander, from which
Marsilio Ficino formed his opinion, states that "they called him
Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the
greatest priest and the greatest king."[19]

Another explanation, in the Suda (10th century), is that "He was called
Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, saying there
is one divine nature in the trinity."[20]

Hermetic
writings

The Asclepius and the Corpus Hermeticum are
the most important of the Hermetica, writings attributed to Hermes
Trismegistus, which survive. During the Renaissance it was accepted that Hermes
Trismegistos was a contemporary of Moses, however after Casaubon’s dating
of the Hermetic writings as no earlier than the second or third
century CE, the whole of Renaissance Hermeticism collapsed.[21]

As to their actual authorship:

"... they were certainly not written in remotest antiquity by an
all wise Egyptian priest, as the Rennaissance believed, but by
various unknown authors, all probably Greeks, and they contain
popular Greek philosophy of the period, a mixture of Platonism and Stoicism, combined with some
Jewish and probably some Persian influences.[22]

Hermes Trismegistus is described in the Corpus Hermeticum in a Euhemerist fashion, as a man who became a
god, or as a man who was the son of a god.

Hermetic
revival

During the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance, the writings attributed to
Hermes Trismegistus, known as Hermetica, enjoyed great prestige and
were popular among alchemists. The "hermetic tradition"
consequently refers to alchemy, magic, astrology and related
subjects. The texts are usually divided into two categories: the
"philosophical", and the "technical" hermetica. The former deals
mainly with issues of philosophy, and the latter with practical
magic, potions and alchemy. Spells to magically protect objects,
for example, are the origin of the expression "Hermetically sealed".

The classical scholar Isaac Casaubon in De rebus sacris et
ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI (1614) showed, through an
analysis of the Greek language used in the texts, that those texts
which were believed to be of ancient origin were in fact much more
recent: most of the "philosophical" Corpus Hermeticum can be dated to
around AD
300. However, flaws in this dating were discerned by the 17th
century scholar Ralph Cudworth, who argued that
Casaubon's allegation of forgery could only be applied to three of
the seventeen treatises contained within the Corpus Hermeticum. Moreover, Cudworth
noted Casaubon's failure to acknowledge the codification of these
treatises as a late formulation of a pre-existing oral tradition.
According to Cudworth, the texts must be viewed as a terminus
ad quem and not a quo.

In Islamic
tradition

Antoine
Faivre, in The Eternal Hermes (1995) has pointed out
that Hermes Trismegistus has a place in the Islamic tradition, though the name Hermes does not appear in
the Qur'an. Hagiographers and chroniclers of the first
centuries of the Islamic Hegira quickly identified Hermes
Trismegistus with Idris, the nabi
of surahs 19.57 and 21.85, whom
the Arabs also identified with Enoch (cf. Genesis 5.18–24). Idris/Hermes
was termed "Thrice-Wise" Hermes Trismegistus because he had a
threefold origin: the first Hermes, comparable to Thoth, was a "civilizing hero," an initiator into
the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the
world: he carved the principles of this sacred science in hieroglyphs. The second Hermes, in Babylon, was the initiator of
Pythagoras. The third
Hermes was the first teacher of alchemy. "A faceless prophet," writes the
Islamicist Pierre Lory, "Hermes possesses no concrete or salient
characteristics, differing in this regard from most of the major
figures of the Bible and the Quran."[23] A
common interpretation of the representation of "Trismegistus" as
"thrice great" recalls the three characterizations of Idris: as a
messenger of god, or a prophet; as a source of wisdom, or
hikmet (wisdom from hokmah); and as a king of the
world order, or a "sultanate." These are referred to as,
müselles bin ni'me.

In the Bahá'í
writings

New Age
revival

Modern occultists suggest that some Hermetic texts may be of
Pharaonic origin, and that the legendary "forty-two essential
texts" that contain the core Hermetic religious beliefs and
philosophy of life remain hidden in a secret library.

In some trance "readings" of Edgar Cayce, Hermes or Thoth was an
engineer from the submerged Atlantis, who also built, designed or directed
the construction of the Pyramids of Egypt.

The book Kybalion, by authors dubbed "The Three
Initiates," addresses Hermetic principles.

Within the occult tradition, Hermes Trismegistus is associated
with several wives, and more than one son who took his name, as
well as more than one grandson. This repetition of given name and
surname throughout the generations may at least partially account
for the legend of his longevity, especially as it is believed that
many of his children pursued careers as priests in mystery
religions.

References

Ebeling, Florian, The secret history of Hermes
Trismegistus: Hermeticism from ancient to modern times
[Translated from the German by David Lorton] (Cornell University
Press: Ithaca, 2007), ISBN 9780801445460.

Fowden, Garth, 1986. The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical
Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press (Princeton University Press, 1993): deals with
Thoth (Hermes) from his most primitive known conception to his
later evolution into Hermes Trismegistus, as well as the many books
and scripts attributed to him.)

Further
reading

Copenhaver, Brian P. 1995.Hermetica: the Greek Corpus
Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English translation,
with notes and introduction, Cambridge; New York, NY, USA:
Cambridge University Press, 1995 ISBN 0-521-42543-3.

From Wikisource

As Seleucus narrates, Hermes describes the principles that rank
as wholes in two myriads of books; or, as we are informed by
Manetho, he perfectly unfolded these principles in three myriads
six thousand five hundred and twenty-five volumes. . . . . . . Our
ancestors dedicated the inventions of their wisdom to this deity,
inscribing all their own writings with the name of
Hermes.--IAMBLICUS.

Still through Egypt's desert places
Flows the lordly Nile,
From its banks the great stone faces
Gaze with patient smile.
Still the pyramids imperious
Pierce the cloudless skies,
And the Sphinx stares with mysterious,
Solemn, stony eyes.

But where are the old Egyptian
Demi-gods and kings?
Nothing left but an inscription
Graven on stones and rings.
Where are Helios and Hephaestus,
Gods of eldest eld?
Where is Hermes Trismegistus,
Who their secrets held?

Where are now the many hundred
Thousand books he wrote?
By the Thaumaturgists plundered,
Lost in lands remote;
In oblivion sunk forever,
As when o'er the land
Blows a storm-wind, in the river
Sinks the scattered sand.

Something unsubstantial, ghostly,
Seems this Theurgist,
In deep meditation mostly
Wrapped, as in a mist.
Vague, phantasmal, and unreal
To our thought he seems,
Walking in a world ideal,
In a land of dreams.

Was he one, or many, merging
Name and fame in one,
Like a stream, to which, converging
Many streamlets run?
Till, with gathered power proceeding,
Ampler sweep it takes,
Downward the sweet waters leading
From unnumbered lakes.

By the Nile I see him wandering,
Pausing now and then,
On the mystic union pondering
Between gods and men;
Half believing, wholly feeling,
With supreme delight,
How the gods, themselves concealing,
Lift men to their height.

Or in Thebes, the hundred-gated,
In the thoroughfare
Breathing, as if consecrated,
A diviner air;
And amid discordant noises,
In the jostling throng,
Hearing far, celestial voices
Of Olympian song.

Who shall call his dreams fallacious?
Who has searched or sought
All the unexplored and spacious
Universe of thought?
Who, in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line
Mark the border-land dividing
Human and divine?

Trismegistus! three times greatest!
How thy name sublime
Has descended to this latest
Progeny of time!
Happy they whose written pages
Perish with their lives,
If amid the crumbling ages
Still their name survives!

Thine, O priest of Egypt, lately
Found I in the vast,
Weed-encumbered sombre, stately,
Grave-yard of the Past;
And a presence moved before me
On that gloomy shore,
As a waft of wind, that o'er me
Breathed, and was no more.